Mobile phones have gone from being rare and expensive pieces of equipment used primarily by the business elite, to pervasive low-cost personal items. In many countries, mobile phones now outnumber land-line telephones, with most adults and many children now owning mobile phones. In the United States, approximately 50% of children own mobile phones. It is not uncommon for people to simply own a mobile phone instead of a land-line for their residence. In some developing countries there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure and consequently mobile phone use has become widespread. In general, a mobile or cellular telephone is a long-range, portable electronic device for personal telecommunications over long (or short) distances. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (satellite phones being one exception).
With high levels of mobile telephone penetration, a mobile culture has evolved, where the phone is used as a key social tool. Many phones offer text-messaging services to increase the simplicity and ease of text-based communications. Many people keep in touch using text messaging, such as SMS, and a whole culture of “texting” has developed from this. Some phones also offer Internet and email access such that mobile users can access websites and electronic mail on the go. In some cases, mobile telephones include functionality to engage a transaction terminal and complete a transaction.
Traditionally, commercial advertising has been concerned with attempting to get the most consumers as possible to see the particular advertisement. Various media have been used for advertising over the years, such as, billboards, printed flyers, radio, cinema and television ads, web banners, web popups, magazines, newspapers, and even the sides of buses, taxicab doors and roof mounts. Advertisers generally must select a static location at which to place their advertisement and hope that consumers happen upon them.
While the system and method for generating predictions based on wireless commerce transactions is described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the system and method for generating predictions based on wireless commerce transactions is not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the system and method for generating predictions based on wireless commerce transactions to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the system and method for generating predictions based on wireless commerce transactions as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.